Chris Lehmann considers
how the turn of the US's Democratic Party to neoliberalism lowers its electoral prospects.

Is the distinction between democratic socialism and social democracy of no practical importance at the moment in any nation's politics? I think of the difference in two ways. First, in the United States in the 1970s, leftists had an argument. Self-defined social democrats became Neoconservatives,
while democratic socialists found the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Second, both are reformists approaches to capitalism, advocating tweaks to, as Karl Popper argued for, prevent
unnecessary pain. But social democrats have no ultimate goal of replacing capitalism, while democratic socialists want to end up
with a transformed system.